What makes anxiety so high with lyme?

Is it the toxins or is the lyme in the brain?  I am just so frustrated.  Anxiety is so so high.  Finally got heart beat back to normal only to have anxiety up and heart going crazy again.  Taking xanax but not doing the job.  Hate to add another pill to the mix.  What exactly is it with lyme that causes the anxiety??? 

Lyme depletes seritonin in the brain. If you are not on an SSRI I have been told you should take 5-HTP three times a day and melatonin at night if have trouble sleeping though the night. That is what I take.

One of my son's primary Lyme symptoms is anxiety.  We had some tests run on his brain chemistry (before we knew it was Lyme) and they found that he had an extremely high level of histamine in his brain.  Histamine (allergic) reactions can cause a boatload of symptoms, from a runny nose to anaphalactic shock to pain to heart problems, the list is extensive.

There is a great explanation of histamine and the ways that it makes the body react on this website http://www.rainbowminerals.net/histamine_factor.html .  I haven't ever shopped with them, don't know anything about their products, but I liked the way that it explained the body's reaction to histamine.

One thing that was identified through the testing as being a huge trigger for allergies in my son was eggs.  He elimnated them from his diet and within a week we saw a 60% improvement in his symptoms.  It was amazing.

Marika

I just did an internet search and from what I found Xanax is not an SSRI, it looks like it is a benzodiazapam family.

5-HTP is a vitamin supplement. It is basically seratonin. There are three seritonin like supplements available. ONe is tryptophan, one melatonin and one 5-HTP. 5-HTP is the one recommended by two nutricionists I have seen for anxiety. You cannot take 5-HTP is you are taking SSRI's (seratonin reuptake inhibitors) because it can cause a rare problem of seritonin buildup. Any way 5-HTP is available at any vitamin store. There are several studies showing it helps anxiety the losest theraputic dose is 150 mg per day, although some studies used higher doses.

Gosh, I really don't have any advice as I was born with anxiety as well as my 2 brothers and sister.   Don't know if it's lyme related or not.. 

Something that helps me is Sublingual B Total drops..  I take a full dropper, hold it in my mouth for 30 seconds and then swallow..  works really fast!

http://www.energeticnutrition.com/vitalzym/subbtotal.html

Denise

Personally I dont think anyone should be taking anything chemical like xanax, or other SSRI´s. There´s enough chemicals we have to deal with already. As for depression, if you have trouble remembering your dreams I would take vit B6 100-200mg a day with 60 mg Zink - as these two compounds work together in the creation of serotonin. If you do have problems remembering dreams, look up "pyroluria" (pyroluria is caused by something blocking your uptake of vit B6 -in which is extremely important for creating serotonin). This is something I´ve been diagnosed with but I now believe is due to lyme. "Histadelia" is another term that is in which you have too much histamine in your body. Histadelia is more common to cause anxiety, and pyroluria - depression. I tried 5HTP but it just made me anxious.
My recommendations for depression: talking about it, crying, yelling, going for a long walk every day, B6 and Zink, sunlight, vit D (+++there are so many more supplements out there), get it out of your system like writing things down or painting or whatever. Just remember you are not alone, and that it´s only a moment in time. I´m pretty much done with panic attacks now, but I have to say experiencing that is the wildest thing in the world. I´ve skydived and bungyjumped - and it was not even close to as scary!!!!!! Experiencing this will make you stronger in the long run!

I'd personally steer clear of the benzo's daily or even weekly if you use longer acting ones like klonopin or valium. they are addictive and tolerance building. Once that happens it may be almost impossible to wean off them due to incredibly high(yes worse) anxiety that you had before(ask me how i know). Not to mention electric shocks going through your body your hands go numb while your driving(again, ask me how i know) and every second of the day feeling like you literally are about to die in the worst panic attack of your life that not even medication can fix(other then higher benzo use). This can go on for months or years(lucky for me, 2 months).  Lyme hammers your nervous system, and anything in your nervous system can trigger almost any symptom the body is capable of sustaining.  Benzos turn off your bodys natural way to quell the stimulation hormones wtih another hormone called gaba.  once its turned off long enough, your body will stop making it or make very little because its not needed anymore.  Once you stop taking the benzo(cold turkey or quick taper), there is nothing to regulate the stimulating hormones and prepare for anxiety from ****.

It took me a year and a half to get off of klonopin, i had the tolerance issues and i had to do a special tapering method to be off it. Now i know people hwo have used benzo's and been able to come off them even after long term. I'd say its about 50-50.

Now i know how bad anxiety can be as i was institutionalized a few times for it. sometimes its so bad that you literally cant move an inch, cant breathe, let alone force yourself to scream, cry, read, watch tv, etc. I'd curl up in a ball and live every second of every day in the worst hell imagineable for quite a long time. The things that helped me was 150 trazodone at night. Within 5 days its like somneone turned off the anxiety and i never have had it again, plus the trazodddone will make you sleep like a log. Yes, the older tryciclics can still be useful.. even for pain. I also take paxil which im weaning off of very very slowly. maybe after a year or 2 ill be off that. The paxil can work very well for anxiety but i don't think so much for lyme. Might be worth a shot though. of if you want to stay away from prescription strength, st johns wort, 5 htp, etc may work tho they are just similar to the ssri's. Or if you anxiety is such that its bad, but you can still leave your house and accomplish things though with some extra effort, then the regular ways of anxiety relief(baths, reading, massage, meditation, eating better) may be beneficial.

Vin

PS.  Yes sugar can be very stimulating.  eating one too many cookies before sent me into a panic attack.   drinking coffee, panic attack.  working out too hard, panic attack.   My anxiety is mostly gone now thank god.   Now i just need to get the rest of me healthy.